Habs Handling the Media Differently

Montreal Canadiens’ head coach Michel Therrien was not a popular choice for a few people back when newly appointed General Manager Marc Bergevin announced him as his man of confidence to run the team back in the summer of 2012. A loud but minority fan base has been on his case ever since and that, in spite of a pretty outstanding record, but the debacle from last season saw a slight increase in fans (and media) dissatisfied about the fact that Therrien managed to keep his job.

Yet, Therrien is proving his GM right for sticking with him so far this season with the team starting the season atop the NHL, with only one regular season loss in its first 12 games. That loss, however, was a humiliating and humbling one, falling 10-0 to the Columbus Blue Jackets. If given the choice however, most in hockey would rather lose one game 10-0 than losing 10 games by the score of 1-0… so the Habs will take it.

We get a feeling that the top-3 men in the Canadiens’ hockey operations have all decided to follow a game plan when it comes to handling the media. In a rare but subtle tweet, team President and owner Geoff Molson directed a point at The Gazette’s Stu Cowan in pre-season, a move that might have seemed innocent to most fans, didn’t go unnoticed amongst media members. The message was sent, from the top down, that the team would start responding to the media attacks on the organisation.

A few days after the beating the team has taken to Columbus, a member of the media decided to ask Carey Price what he thought of that defeat. Price refused to talk about that game, stating that it’s behind them and when the reporter came back with a similar question, the star goaltender completely shut him down. When someone asked him if he had spoken to Al Montoya since, Price said that he did but that conversation would remain between the two men, and the coaching staff, and not with everybody else. Slam!

When Therrien came to the podium, some members of the media, trying to find something to write about (or to vent) since the beginning of the season, tried to pry some information from the coach, asking if he was worried of the way his team was performing.

Therrien really put things into perspective and what this text doesn’t reveal, it’s that he acknowledged that his team had things to work on, just like the other 29 teams in the NHL.

As you can read yourself, now Therrien is putting the onus on the media, clearly pointing the finger at them for their negativity in spite of a new season, a good start at that. He clearly states that the fans he spoke to are happy, but it’s the media spreading the venom… which isn’t totally false. As one of my Twitter followers put it:

The virus spreading through sports journalism is the self-prescribed notion that journalists should judge rather than report. #Habs

As for most of us, Habs’ fans, let’s enjoy this great start to the season and let’s not get brought down by a few reporters and bloggers who would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to bring their negative vibes into our lives. Life is too short to live negatively. Shut them down, cut them out of your timeline and your life and keep on cheering on the most successful franchise in history! Go Habs Go!